The freshman Republican questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in the morning, delivered his first U.S. Senate floor speech in the afternoon and voted on his pioneer legislative effort in the evening.

Colleague Bob Casey also had a productive day. A bill the Pennsylvania Democrat sponsored to freeze pay for members of Congress and the president if the federal government shuts down passed the Senate.

Toomey found two opportunities to talk about his latest passion: the debt. He wants Congress, instead of blindly raising the nation's debt limit to allow more borrowing, to talk seriously about spending less. Existing debts could be prioritized during that debate, he says, to avoid default.

On a 52-47 vote, the Senate voted Tuesday against doing that. A more senior Republican had arranged for the vote on Toomey's behalf as an amendment to an unrelated patent reform measure. The plan put to a vote would have prioritized spending to debt payments and to Social Security payments.

"I am disappointed that my colleagues across the aisle are putting politics ahead of our country's fiscal health and our senior citizens," Toomey said in a statement after the vote.

Toomey contends the nation has enough cash flow from taxes to ensure it doesn't default if the $14.3 trillion debt limit isn't raised by the time U.S. borrowing hits that threshold, as long as payments to bondholders take precedence. In Toomey's view, this would allay global markets' fears about the U.S. possibly going to default.

At a morning hearing on monetary policy, Toomey asked Bernanke if financial markets know the difference between the federal government missing a payment to a vendor versus missing a payment on its Treasury securities. When Bernanke skirted the question, Toomey answered it himself.

"As a former bond trader who earned a living trading fixed-income securities and derivatives, I have to tell you the market knows the difference between delaying a payment to the guys who cut the grass on the mall and failure to make a bond payment," Toomey said. "It's a huge difference, and I really don't think we should be even pretending that there's any equivalence between those two."

Critics of his idea have said it would be irresponsible to force cuts at important federal agencies — Toomey acknowledges it would be "disruptive." Others have argued it puts foreign lenders before domestic needs — he says that a large percentage of U.S. debt is held by Americans.

He made that point during his first Senate floor speech.

"It would be a great reassurance to the millions of Americans who have lent this government their money. The millions of Americans who hold Treasury bonds in their IRAs, 401(k)s, pension plans. The retiree who lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania, who lived modestly, saved money, with their retirement savings invested in the U.S. Treasury," Toomey said.

"I think those folks deserve the peace of mind of knowing that first priority is going to be to make sure that we honor the obligation to stay current on our debt."

After the vote, Toomey's spokeswoman, Nachama Soloveichik, said the pressure will be on Democrats to explain voting for default and against seniors.